


What's in a Date?

by orphan_account



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fast Food, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Shopping Malls, like a year or so later??, photo booths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-02 21:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10953429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: He supposed that if he had to be on a date, he would prefer if it was Otabek. Sure, they were just friends – even if sometimes it felt like they were more, something that Yuri couldn’t quite describe – but Yuri wouldn't deny the other skater was, well, really damn attractive.~*~Yuri has questions, Otabek is handsome, and they both come to an unspoken agreement that fast food chips are awful and photography is a fun past time. Entry for the Otayuri Reverse Bang 2017.





	What's in a Date?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my artist, aieegarbage, for everything!! Working with you has been such a pleasure, and I hope you enjoy the fic!  
> Also huge shoutout to the mods, you've done a great job at organising this reverse bang and it was a pleasure to take part in it.
> 
> Title is a play on the saying "what's in a name?" haha damn titling stuff is hard but! Without further ado, let's get to the fic!

~*~

Yuri was a fan of shopping malls _, in theory_.

In practice, however, he found himself rather irked by them. Screaming kids, bustling people… There was a constant source of agitation in the air. In fact, you could even go as far as to say that Galeria Shopping Mall was a breeding ground for noise and irritation.

Despite all of this, it was Otabek’s turn to choose where to go for the day, and he wanted to go shopping, and so Yuri was willing to put up with it. Considering that this was _his_ holiday, it would be rather rude for Yuri to turn him down.

It helped that he was an incredibly pragmatic shopper, however, expertly weaving through the crowds. Yuri may have been left in his dust had Otabek not offered him his hand…  But it wasn’t weird or anything! _Nobody_ had a chance at keeping up with Otabek without practically latching on to him. He was a display of efficiency at its finest: already, they had hit four clothing stores – Yuri had bought clothes from two of them after Otabek recommended a few jackets and leather pants– and two entertainment and electronics stores. They would have been on their way to a third, but thankfully Otabek had found the headphones he was looking for.

Yuri asked him why he didn’t just buy them in Almaty, to which Otabek replied that he was usually too busy to browse back at home. To be honest, Yuri wouldn’t quite call what Otabek was doing browsing: that would imply a relaxed nature to his movements. Although, leaving the store and now having his attention brought to the matter, he didn’t seem stressed. To the untrained eye, he may have seemed on edge, perhaps even frightening, but Yuri had long since learned how to tell his mood. Otabek was having a good time. He was relaxing and navigating the mall like he was a local, even smiling. It was oddly relieving to see him enjoying himself, as if a weight Yuri hadn’t known he was carrying was lifted form his shoulders. If only he could drop the weights in his hands…

At this point, Otabek seemed to notice that Yuri was lagging slightly behind. Shuffling his bags so that he carried them all in one hand – _impressive_ , Yuri thought – he extended his free hand behind him. It was a wordless invitation, one that Yuri accepted silently after readjusting his own bags.

They continued walking in companionable silence, neither feeling the need to break it. Otabek’s hand acted as a firm and warm anchor when he began to feel a little lost in the busy Saturday crowds. The thought that _this is nice_ rang through Yuri’s head. Not quite nice in the way that winning gold in your first year of competing in seniors is – which Yuri will hold over everyone for the rest of his existence, if he was going to be honest with himself – but a _gentler_ kind of nice. This was a kind of nice he could definitely get used to.

He hadn’t really thought to ask Otabek to hold his hand in the past. It wasn’t really a thought that naturally occurred to him, or a need he had felt he had to fulfil – not until now at least. Yuri wondered briefly if Otabek enjoyed holding his hand as much as he did, but dismissed the thought immediately.

Now Yuri felt distinctly uncomfortable. Was his hand sweaty? God, it wasn’t like him to overthink stupid details like this. He needed a distraction… he might as well take it upon himself to be the one to break the silence.

Yuri opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of electric guitars and wailing vocals. 

Otabek paused his movements, eying Yuri's pocket from which the noise was coming from. Without missing a beat, Yuri dropped Otabek’s hand – after doing so, immediately noticing how cold it felt – and snatched the offending phone from his pocket, glaring at the caller ID.

Victor Nikiforov’s stupid grinning face was plastered across the screen. “Bastard,” he muttered, hovering his thumb over the reject call button, hesitating slightly.

Victor was not someone that Yuri wanted to talk to today. In fact, Yuri _may_ have been avoiding him for the past few days. It wasn’t all his fault: he had been trying to keep Otabek’s arrival in St. Petersburg a secret, and so far, he had been successful for the last 72 hours. They hadn’t even gone to the rink yet. Maybe it was selfish of him, but Yuri just wanted a few days of having Otabek to himself before everyone else got to him, or before skating got to him. He just wanted a little time for them to just be _themselves_.

And now here Victor was, quite literally calling him back to reality.

 “Usually when you get a call, you either accept or decline it,” Otabek’s voice interjected, causing Yuri to look over at his friend. Although his voice was smug, his expression betrayed him: his eyes held nothing but concern.

 “It's just Victor,” Yuri assured him.

There was a visible lessening of tension in Otabek’s countenance. “Aren't you going to answer him?"

 “No,"

Otabek blinked. “I wouldn't hang up on my coach,” he replied, which was Otabek-speak for _I think that's a bad idea_. 

Yuri knew he was right. On the off-chance that this was actually important, he should probably pick up the phone. “Fine,” he grumbled, “Just give me a minute,”

Otabek nodded, walking off to lean against a nearby wall while Yuri began a gradual pace around the vicinity, punching the _accept_ button.

 “Yura, you picked up!” Victor exclaimed in English. His voice was incredulous, almost as if he was on the verge of tears. Yuri couldn't remember the last time he seemed so happy to hear his voice, which was actually rather ridiculous; it wasn't like Yuri ignored _all_ of his calls!

 “Yeah, what do you want?” Yuri responded in Russian, trying his best not to sound irritated. He wasn't a kid anymore; he couldn't just yell at his coach, even if he really felt like it. At least he could speak in his first language, so he didn't need the added stress of translating. 

Victor seemed to pick up the hint, because he responded in Russian too. “Yuuri and I wanted to know if you had any lunch plans,” which was Victor-talk for _Yuuri and I miss you but Yuuri is too socially awkward to admit it so we're inviting you out for food instead of talking about our feelings_. 

Yuri was thankful for the lack of talking about feelings at least. “Actually, I do,”

 “Oh?”

 “Yeah,” Yuri left it at that, hoping that Victor would drop the matter now that he knew that Yuri was busy.

Of course, when it comes to Victor Nikiforov, you tend to get the opposite of what you hope. “If your lunch plans are to eat alone in the rink, you can forget about them,”

Yuri rolled his eyes: as _pushy as ever_ , he thought with an internal groan. “I _have_ plans,”

 “ _Really_?” Victor asked, in English. Yuri didn't know what kind of point he was trying to make, but he already didn’t like it. 

 “Yeah _really_ ,” he responded, punctuating the second word, “and I’m not alone, I’m with someone,”

Oops.

Victor’s voice switched immediately from the semi-serious air he had put on, devolving entirely into a gossipy schoolgirl. “Oh Yuri, you’re spending time with friends! Who is it?” he all but screeched into the phone, causing Yuri to hold it away from his ear slightly to prevent hearing damage.

 “Just _someone_ ,”

 “Come on Yura!”

 “I’m going now,”

 “I’ll keep calling you until you tell me,”

 “I’m with Otabek!”

It was only after he said it did he realise what he had done: all the work he had put in to keeping Otabek hidden was completely ruined! He fought the compulsion to ditch his phone against the nearest wall. He could also throw it down to the bottom floor, _that_ was an option…

Yuri almost forgot he was supposed to be listening. Not that it mattered anyway, as Victor had taken to unleashing a barrage of questions onto him that he didn’t exactly wish to answer. “You're with _Otabek_? I didn't even know he was here! Why haven't I seen him? How have you been hiding him from us?” a meaningful pause was added before Victor added “Is it a date?!”

A date?! “We're just hanging out!” he screeched back defensively.

It seemed, however, that Victor was the one who forgot to listen now. “Okay then Yura,” he replied in the same sing-song voice he uses when he drops a massive critique on your routines on you, “we'll leave you to your _date_ ,”

 “It’s not a-!” but Victor had already hung up, the phone playing a dull series of beeps to let him know. Once again, the thought of throwing his phone buzzed through his head, instead he merely shoved it in his pocket with a bit more force than necessary.

Otabek looked up from his own phone as he noticed Yuri stalking back towards him, hands shoved in his pockets and brows furrowing into quite the intimidating glare. “What did he want?” he asked.

 “To bug me,”

Otabek pocketed his phone, leaning down to grab the bags that leaned against him on the floor. “He really does care about you,” he said.

Yuri took a deep breath, feeling it settle in the pit of his stomach. Victor came from a good place, as frustrating as it could be to deal with him. For that matter, so did Otabek, who did nothing to deserve the amount of salt Yuri was ready to dish out. 

Yuri exhaled the breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding, giving Otabek a small but genuine smile. "I know," he replied, bumping his elbow into Otabek's side lightly. "Let's just find someplace to eat, I'm starving,"

~*~

It turned out, that _someplace_ would be a fast food chain. Victor would have a heart attack if he knew what he was eating; Yuri made a mental note to leave all mentions of food out of his Instagram today. Still, it was a nice change from protein shakes and controlled portions. There were definitely ups and downs to being a professional athlete.

Otabek had even offered to pay for him, which was a really nice gesture. Yuri promised to pay for the next meal they have together before they collected their food and found an empty seat in the otherwise full food court. 

Now, they were both eating in companionable silence. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement against bringing attention to what exactly they were eating, quite possibly from a sense of shame, but mostly from the fact that they were too hungry to talk at this point. Yuri certainly tried not to think about the greasy burger he was currently ingesting at an almost animalistic pace, but found that his mind naturally wandered anyway.

He thought back to what Victor had said about ‘enjoying his date’. _Was_ this a date? Yuri wasn't an unattractive man, but he hadn't had time for dating: when you dedicate yourself to your passion, you tend to sacrifice some things. It's not like he had past experience to fall back on. 

He could always ask for help. Perhaps, a few years ago, the thought of asking another for help would have seemed ridiculous to him. Now, it was only a question of _who_. 

Georgi would _never_ be an option. His failures in love did not make him a reliable source of information in this department. Mila, although having a slew of ex-lovers that could rival Georgi's, would probably be slightly more reliable. Yuri would rather not ask, however, and endure the endless torturing he was sure to receive from her bugging him about it. After all of the dirt he’s dished at her over the years, Yuri wouldn’t be surprised if she gave him a taste of his own medicine.

He didn't exactly consider Yuuri and Victor as good examples either, with their love story being as unconventional as it was. Honestly, who flies across the globe, ditching all of their responsibilities, for what was essentially love at first dry hump? The answer was Victor obviously, it was such a Victor thing to do, but it was still ridiculous even for him.

And then the Japanese Yuuri didn’t even remember that night! They were both as hopeless as each other.

Completely ignoring the fact that everything turned out okay for those two in the end, Yuri made a note to avoid all of the conventions those two fools went through. None of that pining rubbish.

He supposed that if he had to be on a date, he would prefer if it was Otabek. Sure, they were just friends – even if sometimes it felt like they were _more_ , something that Yuri couldn’t quite describe – but Yuri wouldn't deny the other skater was, well, _really damn attractive_.

Otabek was everything Yuri had wished he could be when they first met: strong, handsome and mysterious, he was practically the coolest person Yuri had ever met. And to think that Otabek had been thinking those things about him all that time, about his ‘soldier’ eyes and whatnot…  It was almost embarrassing to think about how sentimental Otabek had been when they first met.

Yuri supposed that was one of Otabek’s best features – other than his physical features obviously – that he let himself be sentimental despite the hardened image he had created for himself. Otabek was really special…

And he was also staring right at him.

Yuri jumped slightly, earning a rather quiet chuckle from his companion. Flaring up, he asked “What are you laughing at?” despite knowing the answer.

Otabek raised his eyebrows, which was Otabek-language for _are you really asking me that?_  “Lost in thought?” he added.

Yuri shrugged, popping a fry into his mouth. It tasted kind of gross. “I guess,”

Otabek’s expression faded into seriousness ever-so-slightly. “Is there something on your mind?” he asked, meeting Yuri’s eyes in a way that felt both purposeful and intimidating.

Yuri was the one to break eye contact. “No,”

 “I am here if you need to talk,”

Yuri didn’t doubt that. They had a habit of calling each other at increasingly ridiculous times, just to get something off their chest. They had talked about a lot of things in the past that Yuri had never spoken to anyone else about, not even his grandfather.

And that’s when it struck him. He almost felt stupid. It was so simple: who better to ask the burning questions he had than the person he trusted most?

 “Otabek,” he began, his voice wavering ever so slightly. Otabek looked up at him, a cue for him to continue, and Yuri contemplated just dismissing himself, but stopped that train of thought. Yuri said he wouldn’t let himself be paralysed with indecision and fear like the other Yuuri and Victor.

Once he had the other man’s attention, who was taking a long sip from his cola, he cleared his throat and continued. “what do people do on a date?”

Otabek performed an almost comical spit take.

He busied himself with cleaning up the mess with napkins, Yuri taking some time to calm himself down from the laughter he couldn’t prevent from escaping.

Finally, Otabek responded. “I...” he paused then, perhaps to collect his thoughts before speaking. “I haven't been on a lot of dates,”

Well, there goes Yuri’s plan of getting Otabek The Knowledgeable to help. “You and me both then,” he sighed before taking a sip from his own cup. The cola was awfully sweet, almost unbearable so after abstaining from it for so long.

He expected that to be the end of the conversation, but Otabek seemed to have more to say, because he was still watching him. Yuri raised his eyebrows, waiting for him to continue. “Well from what I know, people just do whatever,”

 “Really? _Whatever_?”

Otabek nodded, turning his eyes downwards to stare intently at the fry he held between his thumb of forefinger. “Something that they enjoy,”

Something that they enjoy, huh? Who knew it could be so simple. Everyone made dating out to be this complicated, difficult affair, but if all you have to do is have fun with someone, then…

It suddenly occurred to Yuri how many times Victor and Yuuri had headed to the rink ‘for leisure’. Had those all been dates? They both enjoyed skating, after all. Yuri would bet his bottom dollar that they skated for fun back at Hasetsu as well, even before they became official. Were all those times dates? Did you have to talk about whether it was a date or not?

Another occurrence hit Yuri in a manner that was not unlike the feeling of hitting the ice after a failed jump: he and Otabek skated for fun too, many, _many_ times.

 "Why did you ask?" Otabek’s voice puled Yuri out of his contemplation.

Uh-oh. “I was just making conversation,” _Nice one_ , Yuri congratulated himself internally.

Otabek shrugged it off, turning back to his food to finish the last of his fries.

He looked so serious as he ate, which was a rather amusing image. Yuri may have decided to leave food out of his Instagram before, but now that the news of Otabek had been let out, he was feeling laxer: what was there to lose at this point? Quickly, Yuri snapped a couple of pics of Otabek putting a fry in his mouth.

He wasn’t exactly sly, however. Otabek looked up, catching him in the act and smiling wryly. Yuri happened to get a picture just in time.

Otabek shook his head, chuckling with amusement as he polished off the rest of his fries, leaving Yuri to take survey of the images he had captured. He got four in total: the first was Otabek picking up the fry. The second photo had him studying it curiously, as if he had never seen a fry before.

Yuri laughed at this one, showing Otabek immediately, who struggled to find why it was so amusing.

The last one was taken just after Otabek had looked up at him. It was… damn, that was a really nice angle, and Otabek’s smirk was… wow.

Shit, this was a good photo.

 “Hey,” he said, “Can I post one of these?”

Otabek simply replied with “Instagram?”

Yuri nodded. “Do you want to see it before I post it?”

Otabek shrugged and… was he still smiling? It suited him, Yuri thought, before quickly dismissing it. “I know you wouldn’t upload a bad photo,” he assured, warmth in his voice.

It wasn’t a bad photo, not at all. In fact, Otabek looked rather handsome… There weren’t many people who could look handsome while eating fries, but _somehow_ he managed to pull it off.

Yuri took his time choosing a filter, absentmindedly shoving fries into his mouth as he did so. Finally satisfied, he moved on to the caption: Cheat day with @otabek-altin 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!!
> 
> Don't forget to check out aieegarbage on tumblr, who makes some reeeaaally cute art xx


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